How to take your career to the next level
Hustle Crew
Since we launched in 2016 we’ve helped ambitious people in tech and beyond take their careers to the next level.
In This Week’s Email
For many professionals these days, levelling up your career path or pivoting into a new career can be daunting and overwhelming.
Here’s a three-part framework to help you take your career to the next level, informed by Hustle Crew Founder & CEO Abadesi’s twelve years in the tech industry where she started as an intern at Groupon in 2011, a year before their IPO. Outside of entrepreneurship, she’s worked across operations, product, marketing and community and most recently was Global VP of Community and Belonging at UK based software company, Brandwatch.
This career-planning framework asks you to evaluate and act based on three key relationships:
Your relationship with work
“You teach people how to treat you.” - Oprah
When your aim is to level up, you must first know the level you are working on currently. One way to do this is proactively requesting and acquiring feedback from colleagues.
Feedback is essential when developing performance, as it is a supportive act intended to deal with under-performance in a constructive way and to develop performance to a higher level.?
Feedback is also a way to keep learning. As with life, in the workspace we will always encounter situations where we have no knowledge which means we are likely to get things wrong from time to time. We will assume things incorrectly. We will communicate in ways that are confusing and possibly impolite for others.
The only way to make sure we don’t continue making the same mistakes is to get feedback. Invest time in asking and learning about how others experience working with you: ‘What do you like about the way I work and what don’t you like?’
You may find it tough listening to others’ (sometimes ill-founded) opinions about your behaviour, but it is what it is; an opinion and not a fact. And if people are thinking it, you may not need to accept it, but you need to manage the perception by explaining more about what you do and why you do it the way you do. It takes time, of course, but probably saves time in the long run – with greater mutual understanding comes greater speed to market.
Abadesi encourages you to ask yourself, are you getting enough feedback? If so, how do you react when you receive it? Once you develop an effective feedback loop, document the things you are good at and begin to lean into it!?
Your relationship with yourself
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“Are you being a good mother to yourself?” - Iyanla Vanzant
Abadesi suggests building a better relationship with yourself in order to level up in your career. Often when we have a big goal ahead, self-doubt, self-criticism and self-sabotage begin to creep in. Thoughts such as ‘I’m not good enough for this role’ begin to cloud our decisions and stop us from levelling up. Abadesi encourages us to have compassionate discipline and focus on why we want to level up.
We were encouraged to ask ourselves, are you challenging yourself enough? Are you ready to fight for yourself? Are you being honest with yourself about bad habits you need to break in order to get closer to your goals?
Your relationship with your support network
“When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” - Maya Angelou
Levelling up requires a lot of time and effort. Considering this, Abadesi suggests taking the time to assess relationships in our support network, noting which of them may be taking up more energy than required or may not align with where you are heading.
It is important to acknowledge our environment will inevitably influence our outcomes and when trying to level up there may be people who do not understand the journey and therefore project their own fears and views onto you.
While levelling up, take the time to surround yourself with people who will support you and champion the change you are trying to make.
Abadesi encourages you to ask yourself, are you only pouring when your cup is full? Are you judging yourself by YOUR values & and goals, not others? Are you taking ownership of your life, or letting others influence you?
Hustle Crew Academy
If you’re looking for budget-friendly training for your team, get in touch with us for free promo codes. Academy offers bias awareness and inclusion skills training, plus hours of career skills-building content e.g. how to build your personal brand, how to negotiate and how to tackle white supremacy at work.
Techish podcast is LIVE in London on October 25th
If you’re in London during UK Black History Month and you haven’t bought your ticket to Techish LIVE - what are you waiting for? Join your fave hosts on stage with special guests, meet like-minded folks in the community, and enjoy a fun night. Buy tickets here.
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